Both Liberal & Labor fear democratic voting

Recently I wrote an article about Australia’s slide towards totalitarianism and how compulsory voting centralizes the major political parties at the totalitarian end of the political spectrum. The recent debate over electoral reform is an example of this.

On the right, the Liberals oppose automatic voter registration. They prefer to maintain a bureaucratic impediment to voting. They want it to be more difficult for people to vote.

On the left, the Labor party opposes voluntary voting. They prefer to force people against their will to the polling booth with fines enforceable with force.

In most democracies voting is democratic, which means people are free to choose whether they vote or not – their decision to vote is free from government coercion. In many nations voter registration is also automatic so 100% of the people have maximum freedom to cast a vote at the drop of a hat. This is how it should be – maximum freedom and maximum control in the hands of the people, with minimal interference from government.

This is where Australia is so far out of step. Here, both parties oppose electoral freedom. Both parties oppose the basic democratic right common throughout the developed world. One side wants to make it harder for people to vote and the other side wants to force people to vote. Neither side wants to empower the people.

Only nine other nations in the world enforce compulsory voting and while several countries have abolished it in recent decades, Australia is now making our system even less free.

Our political duopoly’s power struggle drives people away from the political process and creates political apathy. This is one of the reasons why many nations with voluntary voting have higher voter turnouts than we do. Under compulsory voting, political parties don’t need to motivate their base, or anyone, to vote. We’ve replaced good leadership with threats and fines.

Who needs good leadership when the people don’t have a choice, when our political parties don’t need to motivate support from the people? All they need to do is be slightly less repulsive than the other guys and compulsory voting does the rest.

And while our system becomes less free, the global trend is away from compulsory voting. Almost as many nations have abolished it in recent decades, as there are where it remains, and half of the ten regimes where it does remain are only decades out of military dictatorship.

In Chile, voter turnouts were in decline because young people were avoiding registering to vote in order to avoid fines for not voting. So Chile’s solution was to make voter registration automatic and voting voluntary. We should do the same.

We should fall into line with places like Canada, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the multitude of other countries where voting is democratic. In these nations people often vote in great numbers because they are engaged and informed. This type of voluntary voter participation is hard to imagine in Australia where so many people file into the polling booth like donkeys to avoid a fine, without a clue who to vote for or why. We’ve abolished a key driver to voter participation.

The reason other countries have high voter participation, again, is because under voluntary voting leaders must inspire people to vote. They must educate, inform, motivate and empower the electorate using peaceful means. This flow of ideas, or this act of leadership, is absolutely crucial to democracy.

As our political discourse reaches new lows, consider what an improvement it would be if our leaders had to motivate their base. At least then we'd know what they really stand for.

You have to wonder why our leaders are scared of democracy.

Jason Kent

Free Our Right To Vote

Comments

[cerchier]

1.

I can only say, spot on Jason....right on the money.

[machiavelli]

2.

I don't agree with some of the authors statements.

Politicians in Australia attempt to motivate their base with spin and bullshit. The NDIS & Gonski & the NBN are good examples of this. Labor politicians will attempt to motivate the electorate all the way to the next election with unrealistic promises of life in nirvana when in reality it will be hell as usual and for many years to come while the taxpayers attempt to pay the bill for Labor excesses and this would not change if voting was not compulsory in fact it may get worse, just look what happens in the USA.
Politicians will NEVER seek to 'educate, inform, motivate and empower' the masses, it's not in their DNA.
Corruption of the government regulated media would not change under a voluntary voting system either. The biased ABC will still be the same under a voluntary system

[Johannes]

3.

100% of agenda driven lefties will vote, leaving the lazy moralists to cry foul. go figure.

[Dallas Beaufort]

4.

Choice is the key which the control freaks fear.. The Art's community has choice and should support this reasonable offer to release tensions..

[Georgina]

5.

I think that Australia ha the worst and silliest voting system in the world. I lived in the Uk for many years and had dual Aust/UK citizenship. I was entitled to vote in the UK elections. This is how it worked without any liabilities for not voting and a system which could not be rorted.

A card was sent to each citizen by mail which had the full details of that person thereon and the name of the polling station at which they had to vote. At the polling station the card was checked and stamped. Voting papers were then given to the individual. The card could therefore not be used again.

There were no preferences and MPs were elected by the number of votes they received. This idea of compulsory voting and automatic voting is ridiculous as is the fine for not voting. Freedom is being squashed at every turn in Australia by this inept government which will do all in its power to get votes by foul means and dishonesty

[Philip Lillingston]

6.

Georgina,
That was a good example you used re UK voting cards and I think Australia could benefit in a voluntary voting system using that.
But I would suggest not to get carried away in calling Australia’s voting system the silliest and worst. Despite the example you gave still Britain is hardly a beacon of enlightened electoral systems.
A. They don’t maintain any form of minority electoral representation as is practised by the majority of the world’s democracies. Ie proportional representation.
B. A max of 5 year terms. If a party gets to power over the temporary popularity of some cause de jour, or simply by lying to the electorate: “peace in our time”; “there will be no carbon tax” you have to wait ages to get rid of them. Compare 2 years for the US.
C. Worst of all, the Poms still have not managed to accept the principle of “one person one vote”. As reported three years ago in The Australian, (9th April 2010) the average population of voters in English electorates was 73,212 while in Scotland it was 56,531.

[Brian Richard Allen]

7.

.... Liberals oppose automatic voter registration ....

As does any Free Man of an anti-totalitarian bent!

And by the authority of what enabling legislation, by the way, have Canberra's authoritarian-regulatory fascists extended themselves the "right" to build the massive interconnected data bases which contribute to Australians being the world's most surveilled people and by way of which they track every Australian's every move -- and are able to "compulsorily enroll" names they have placed in a score of different data bases as "voters?"

Australians' Road To Serfdom is a spiraling ten-lane one-way super-highway.

[Paz]

8.

Oh ye, voting. We recently had voting in the ACT for our new Local Government.
Mum resides in a nursing home. Every local or federal election, people from the election department or representatives visit the home to allow the bed-ridden residents to vote.

Mum has always been a Liberal voter. I dropped off some 'how to vote' cards for the candidates in her area.

For weeks after the election Mum was in as state that she hadn't voted and would get a fine. No-one had come to see her so she could vote.

I know for a fact from discussions I have had that the majority of the staff members at this nursing home are left wing Labor or Green voters.

As Mum has not received a fine or any other notification of failure to vote, who the hell voted for her?????

How do I prove otherwise???????

[Greg]

9.

Here's the heart of the matter though, what attitude should we be taking towards voting?
Should we see it as a voluntary process which you have achieved a right, or a civic duty that you are entitled to perform as being part of this proportional democracy that we call Australia.
Citizens are compelled to pay taxes and attend jury duty, should voting be put in the same category?

Personally I feel indifferent on the matter, but either way, the AEC should make it easier for people to vote by post or online, and there should be no restriction on who wants to vote before election day.

[Anton]

10.

All the noise regardig compulsory/voluntary voting has drowned out another topic raised by the Newman government review into the electoral act:

Truth in political advertising law

Wouldn't that cause a problem for the Australian Liars Party

[Derek]

11.

You mean both of them?
There have been promises that many governments have broken, such as:
No carbon tax (Labor)
No GST (Liberal)
No hunting or recreational shooting in national parks in NSW (Liberal)
A North West Metro and CBD Metro in Sydney (Labor)
Greater rights to land owners impacted by CSG mining (Liberal)
There will be no freeways running through the Sydney CBD (Labor)

These are to just a few of the many that both sides are guilty of, and while many of them are the fault of the party in power at the time, some of them cannot be avoided.
Take Barry O'Farrell's no second Sydney airport promise.
Should the state Liberal party be penalised if the federal government decides to push through and invoke legal provisions that would allow them to build that airport without the support of the NSW government?

[Anton]

12.

So if both sides lie equally we don't need truth in political advertising?

Regarding unpopular legislation, consider this:

>Electronic voting is cheap and easy to use, and as some "reality" shows generate more votes than US presidential elections, capacity is not an issue

>Most people would be more concerned about their bank accounts than their political representative. As most people are happy to use electronic banking, security is not an issue

>So - why not do away with the senate and replace them with an online voting forum. The lower houses (state/federal) could argue and present legislation, and people could once a month log on and approve/reject.

Too democratic maybe?

[kraka]

13.

Derek, this myth that the No GST promise is a lie simply has to stop. There is no comparison to the no carbon tax lie and you know it. The GST saved this country financially, was voted on formally by the electorate after the then PM of this country changed his mind. Changing your mind is not lying-especially when you give the electorate a chance to vote on that mind change.Its about time morons grew up and stopped trying to convince people the flip on GST was anything like the outright lie "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead". Only if Gillard changed her mind and took it to an election can that not be considered an outright lie.

[Derek]

14.

@Anton,
There is actually a senate only party in Australia that does exactly that. They're called Senator Online, and basically if they get elected, they will vote according to a majority which they find out through online polling.
If there is a split vote, they abstain.

Seems pretty good on paper, but there would have to be a significant amount invested into security for that process.

@kraka
I'm not doubting the financial integrity nor the benefits of bringing about a GST, but there was a promise made that there would be none.
Also, why leave out the other valid broken promises? Should they simply be ignored?

[Linne]

15.

I just took a democratic vote on the question of the GST. 100% of those voting were in favour of kraka. kraka wins, you lose.

[Derek]

16.

I'd like to see the statistics for that 'democratic' vote that you've conducted.
Did it follow the necessary requirements to be free and fair?
http://www.ipu.org/cnl-e/154-free.htm

If it didn't, I have to make some phone calls to organise some economic sanctions against you.